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Fenwright Manor is a multi- media Haunted House project that began in May of 1996. The physical aspect started as Halloween props and set decoration. The ultimate goal is for it to be constructed as a Spookhouse Attraction.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Even ghosts celebrate Christmas... and one phantom brings presents to all of the good little ghost and monster children.

You don't know the story, well it's a work in progress, but here it is in it's disjointed glory.
" T'was the fright before Christmas, and all through the house, not a person was sleeping, not even a mouse.
The windows were all shuttered and bolted with care, in hopes of avoidng a ghastly scare.
Settle down, and pause*, while I tell you about the ghost of Skele Claus.

One Christmas eve not so long ago, he stalked his way through the snow
with an overcoat black as night, wrapped with a chain to add more fright.
With the familiar red hat and straggly white beard, kids saw him and would run with fear.
With eyes that glowed like fire and a bone chilling laugh that filled the halls, They knew on this cold night they were visited by the ghost known as Skele Claus!"

Thursday, September 24, 2009

I have seen many warning signs in queue lines for rides, so I decided to design a prototype for my haunted house queue line. It has a bit of humor as well as some helpful information, It will include a no food or drink warning, a no flash photo warning, and other safety warnings.

I am considering making it a black light poster. I felt this sign necessary because I do not need angry parents with crying children saying" This ride was scary.. poor Johnny is balling his eyes out.. nobody told us it was a haunted house ride!" (As if the derilict mansion facade with the boarded up windows wasn't a clue).
until next time...

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Good Afternoon, while we wait for the creative process to become creative. I will take you back to one story that was the springboard for the haunted house project. I wrote that story back in 1999, and this presentation is a re -write.

So without any further delay I present "The Night Ghost".

It was raining outside when I woke from a terrible dream. In this dream a beautiful woman had been poisoned and suffered greatly, her closest childhood friend was the one that had done the poisoning. Chills, and fever were common, then blindness. After three days the woman died.... The funeral was somber and grand at the same time.

That was when the thunder and lightning woke me up, and lightning once again flashed, lighting up the Victorian room. The house I had been staying at was a Victorian Queen Anne mansion recently restored. When I first arrived, the inside was a mess, cobwebs hung like sheets and dust caked the furniture.There was no use in trying to get back to sleep, so I decided to go walk around the house. I was startled at the fact I had a visitor in the corridor. It was the woman from my dream, she looked sickly, and tired. The apparitions' eyes burned into me and made me uneasy. Day broke and I decide to take a short nap, knowing that night she might return, and night fell on the house like a shroud. I awoke from the same dream, but this time it included the woman's internment in a tomb.

I decided to explore the house to find this tomb, and to my surprise; it was hidden in a secret passage just off the cellar, behind some old wine casks. The ghost appeared in her tomb and gazed at me for quite some time, she was quite close to me, about two and a half feet away. Her shroud was moving from an unseen draft. My heart pounded like a drum and I fled.

The old Grandfather clock startled me from my slumber in the late morning, and I decided it would be a good time to go back to the tomb. Old dried flowers covered the tattered shroud covereing the large casket, and candles were in a forrest of dusty cobwebs. On the wall behind the casket was a plaque with the death date infomation, she was only 23....The rain outside was light as the house lost power, I had to light some candles or something. Shadows danced on the walls from the light of the flickering flames, I had decided it was too much for my imagination to handle and went to go fix the breaker box. I grabbed my head lamp and went down the stairs... .. Soon after that I decided to head upstairs to get some sleep.Waiting for me upstairs was the ghost, and she beckoned me to come closer, the smell of lilacs filling my nose... As soon as I was three feet away she transformed into a screaming skeleton wraith. I shreiked down the stairs and lost my footing. I felt numb when I landed and to my horror my body was laying at the foot of the stairs with a broken neck.

I could see it through a hazy light, and it becme cold. I glanced up at a mirror and saw that I was .... a ...ghossssttt. The Beautiful woman glided down the stairs repeating in a hollow voice " At last you have returned my love.. at last we will be together!!"

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Manor: n. The landed estate of a feudal lord.(definitions taken from "Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary", published 1970)

I felt the definitons necessary to explain the name. Fenwright manor is a multi media haunted house project, that will eventually( I hope ) be constructed as a "Spookhouse" Dark ride. Most of the project consists of Halloween displays. This project has been in development since May of 1996. I will explain further in the next blog.